DC insider Michael Whatley is under scrutiny for “championing the rise to power” of convicted child sex predator Harvey Lee West while serving as NCGOP Chair. 

As Whatley’s own party slams him for elevating and protecting a child predator, he’s ducking questions from reporters about his record.

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Charlotte Observer: Opinion: Michael Whatley’s ties to sex offender illustrate GOP hypocrisy

Paige Masten | March 13, 2026

• The Asheville Watchdog reported this week that Whatley “[championed] the rise to power of Harvey L. West Jr.,” a man who was charged with the statutory rape of three teenage girls in 1999, while he was working as a police officer near the Outer Banks. 
• According to the report, Whatley appointed West to prominent executive committees within the North Carolina Republican Party while serving as party chairman, years after West was released from prison. West is also the current chairman of the NCGOP’s 1st Congressional District, and Whatley reportedly supported him in this position. 
• This has been a point of tension within Republican circles for quite some time. During Whatley’s time as chair, GOP leaders reportedly shot down a proposed ban on convicted felons serving in party leadership positions.
• This also could very well turn out to be a real campaign issue. Whatley’s connection with West undermines his credibility on two of the GOP’s biggest talking points. It’s hard to accuse Cooper of being “soft on crime” when Whatley himself seems to believe even the worst offenders deserve second chances. And it’s hard to paint Whatley as the candidate who will protect women and girls when one of his choices for Republican leadership positions was a man who molested teenage girls while working in law enforcement. 
• So far, Whatley does not appear to have commented on West’s criminal record.

Raw Story: Revolt grows as GOP Senate hopeful championed convicted child sex offender for party roles

Matthew Chapman | March 11, 2026

• North Carolina GOP Senate candidate Michael Whatley has tried to paint his Democratic opponent, former Gov. Roy Cooper, as soft on crime — but a new report indicates Whatley himself forgave a sex offender accused of sexually assaulting teenagers in one of his hires for a party office.
• Per the report, the criminal past of West, who was sentenced to six years in prison and a minimum of 10 years on the sex offender registry, was known to many in the state GOP, but there was a sentiment that he had “served his time and cleaned his slate.”
• Whatley did not comment when The Watchdog reached out to his campaign.

Asheville Watchdog: Democracy Watch: Links between convicted sex offender, state GOP leadership may complicate candidacies

Tom Fiedler | March 11, 2026

• Several of the state Republican Party’s major candidates, including U.S. Senate nominee Michael Whatley, face a brewing intraparty revolt ignited by their ties to a convicted sex offender-turned-party leader and financial backer of GOP campaigns. 
• Whatley, former chairman of the state and national Republican Party, is at the center of the spreading revolt after championing the rise to power of Harvey L. West Jr. Whatley appointed West to lead the GOP’s 1st Congressional District committee in the state’s eastern corner, and to head the party’s powerful Plan of Organization committee, which effectively controls rulemaking. 
• West, 54, was a 28-year-old police officer in Washington, a small town in Beaufort County near the Outer Banks, in 1999 when he was arrested and charged with the statutory rape of three girls, two aged 14 and one aged 16. The charge is among the state’s most serious felonies and is defined legally as sexual intercourse with a person aged 15 or younger and the perpetrator is at least six years older. Consent is not a defense. 
• West agreed to plead guilty to 16 lesser charges of taking indecent liberties with a child and served six years in prison. His plea agreement also required that, upon completing the sentence, he be included on the North Carolina sex-offender registry for a minimum of 10 years. 
• I sought comment from Whatley and his campaign spokesman about his support of West by email and text but received no response. The Whatley campaign doesn’t provide contact information for the news media. 
• Previous attempts to sideline West and others alleged to have committed sex crimes have failed, stymied inside closed committee rooms. A resolution backed by Henderson County GOP activist Michele Woodhouse barring the party from holding events at a “venue owned by a convicted felon,” was killed at Whatley’s direction when he led the state party, Woodhouse told me.  
• Woodhouse, the former chairwoman of the Republican Party’s 11th Congressional District that includes Buncombe and Henderson counties, called Whatley’s ties to West “the worst kept secret in the Republican Party.” When I asked her by text if she thought the emergence of West’s past could impact Whatley’s campaign, she replied with the “100 percent” emoji.

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